Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 6, 1994 TAG: 9408080049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The panel of appellate judges said the move was not intended as a slap at Fiske, who was named Jan. 20 to head the Whitewater investigation by Attorney General Janet Reno.
``It is not our intent to impugn the integrity of the attorney general's appointee, but rather to reflect the intent of the act that the actor be protected against perceptions of conflict,'' the judges said in a four-page order.
The judges' announcement came without warning, capping more than a week of congressional Whitewater hearings in which some Republicans questioned Fiske's independence. Starr's appointment raised the prospect that he would revisit parts of the inquiry already wrapped up by Fiske.
White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler said in a statement: ``The president consistently supported and signed into law the Independent Counsel Statute. The administration will cooperate fully with Mr. Starr.''
Fiske said in a statement that it had been ``a privilege'' to hold the special counsel job. ``I wish Ken Starr the very best and will do everything I can to help him with a speedy and orderly transition,'' Fiske said.
Starr, 48, is a Washington lawyer who served as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge and as solicitor general during the Bush administration. His appointment gives him ``full power, independent authority and jurisdiction'' to investigate any federal criminal violations in the Whitewater affair.
It specified that he would investigate any crimes, other than other than misdemeanors, ``relating in any way to James B. McDougal's, President William Jefferson Clinton's or Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton's relationships with Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association, Whitewater Development Corp. or Capital Management Services, Inc.''
McDougal owned Madison when it failed in 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of $47 million to $60 million. He was the Clintons' partner in Whitewater Development, an Arkansas real estate venture.
Capital Management was an Arkansas company whose owner, David Hale, entered into a plea bargain with Fiske this spring on charges of defrauding the Small Business Administration.
Hale has accused Clinton of urging him to improperly funnel an SBA loan to McDougal's former wife when they were the Clintons' Whitewater partners - a charge the president has denied.
At the time of Fiske's appointment, the post-Watergate independent counsel law had lapsed. Reno urged the judges to retain Fiske after Congress renewed the law this spring.
But various Republicans in Congress had argued for replacing Fiske, whose initial report on the Whitewater affair cleared Treasury Department and White House officials of any criminal acts in discussing the Madison case.
Fiske also had affirmed authorities' findings that White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster committed suicide and promised to report within weeks on whether White House officials properly handled Foster's papers after his death.
Fiske, who had set up offices in Washington and Little Rock, Ark., and staffed them with dozens of lawyers and at least 20 FBI agents, has spent more than $2 million on his investigation.
Houston lawyer Rusty Hardin, a member of Fiske's staff, told The Associated Press in Little Rock that Starr's appointment ``probably will set back the timetable for the investigation by several months.''
``I think one has to assume that Starr will want to assemble his own staff,'' Hardin said.
Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington who has served as an independent counsel, said the change ``does not bode well for the Clinton administration.'' He also noted that key figures in the Treasury-White House contacts had testified to Congress without immunity and could be at renewed risk. ``Everything they said can be used against them,'' DiGenova said.
by CNB